The quiet summer campus of UCLA found itself suddenly steeped in water and chaos after a major water pipe burst and spewed some eight million gallons, stranding people in parking garages and flooding the school's storied basketball court less than two years after a major renovation.

Rob Lowe's idyllic European holiday took a frightening turn Wednesday when the actor and his family had to be rescued at dawn from raging floodwaters that engulfed their vacation house in Grasse, France.